US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday that federal law enforcement officials (FBI) have arrested a 21-year-old man from Massachusetts allegedly in connection with the disclosure of classified documents that revealed classified and sensitive US defense and intelligence information. .

In brief notes at Justice Department headquarters, Garland identified the suspect as Jack Teixeira, a Massachusetts Air National Guard pilot, and said he was arrested "in connection with an investigation into allegations of the removal, retention, and transmission of classified National Defense information." The New York Times, which first disclosed his name Thursday, reported him as Teixeira as a member of the Guards 102nd Intelligence Wing.

Garland said FBI agents "took Teixeira into custody earlier this afternoon without incident." Before he spoke, a news helicopter over Teixeira's mother's home in North Dayton, Massachusetts, showed a man in shorts and a T-shirt walking backwards with his hands over his head toward law enforcement officers wielding rifles and wearing military fatigues. The man was soon captured and taken to the back of an armored vehicle.

The attorney general said Teixeira will appear in court to face charges in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The FBI said in a statement that agents "continue to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at home."

Gen. Patrick Ryder, a Pentagon spokesman, called the disclosure a "deliberate criminal act" but declined to comment further at a news conference Thursday. "This is a law enforcement matter, and it would be inappropriate for me or any other Department of Defense official to comment at this time," he said.

Teixeira's arrest came hours after a story in The Washington Post detailed a small online group on the Discord platform where the group's leader appeared to have shared documents over several months, and that the person was known to fellow members as "OG." And he worked on a military base, while other members of the group told the Washington Post, and it is not yet known whether the accused's motives were political or ideological.

For his part, US President Joe Biden said during his visit to Double, Ireland, on Thursday, that investigators are close to identifying the suspect.

Dozens of documents exposed in the past few days contained details about the war in Ukraine, including information about expected Russian air strikes on specific targets and other Russian war plans. The records provide an unprecedented glimpse into US efforts to support the Ukrainian government, as well as the extent to which US intelligence agencies have penetrated Russian communication channels on behalf of Ukrainian forces.

The documents also showed that the United States was watching the allies closely. One document details conversations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his top military official. He conveyed the latest concerns expressed by South Korean leaders about sending ammunition to Ukraine. A third said that Israeli intelligence agency leaders called on intelligence officials and Israeli citizens to protest divisive judicial reforms proposed by the government.